Home › Volumes › Reptiles › Snakes
"moccasin" — Part 2
It might be explained incidentally that the power of scent is well developed with these reptiles. A cage containing a number of water snakes can be set in a turmoil by simply rubbing a frog or fish across the bottom. The hungry reptiles, catching the scent of the prey, dart wildly about in every direction biting at each other's bodies in their excited search for the food.
The Common Water Snake, like all the snakes of the genus Tropidonotus, is viviparous. The largest litter of young snakes counted by the writer amounted to forty-four. Several records of the birth of young snakes are presented; the female specimens involved had been captured but a few weeks.
August 17th. Brood of 22. Female from Jersey Meadows, N.J.
September 6th. Brood of 28. Female from Greenwood Lake, N.J.
September 10th. Brood of 21. Female from Greenwood Lake, N.J.
September 13th. Brood of 33. Female from Sullivan Co., N. Y.
September 14th. Brood of 25. Female from Sullivan Co., N. Y.
September 30th. Brood of 23. Female from Sullivan Co., N. Y.